Google accused of ‘devious’ tax policy

British lawmakers accuse Google of “devious” and “unethical” tax behaviour.

British lawmakers have accused Google of “devious” and “unethical” behaviour amid reports that the internet giant has sheltered its multi-billion profits from UK taxes.

During todayâ„¢s hearing, the Public Accounts Committee accused the company of “calculated” tax avoidance and said they did not believe Googleâ„¢s earlier claims of selling no advertising from London.

Å“You are a company that says you do no evil and I think that you do evil in that you use smoke and mirrors to avoid paying tax,” the committee’s chair Margaret Hodge told Google’s European head of sales Matt Brittin.

The head of Google sales in Europe Matt Brittin, however, denied misleading the parliament over the issue and insisted that the deals were closed through its offices in Ireland.

Earlier last year, Business giants Starbucks, Google and Amazon were found guilty of dodging millions of pounds in tax in Britain.

It is estimated that the corporate tax evasion is costing the UK economy something between 45 to 90 billion pounds a year, meaning that it is practically undoing all austerity measures as well as widening the gap between the rich and the poor in the British society.